


You’re Always Welcome To Come In

by robindrake93



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Domestic Fluff, Ex Sex Worker Luke Castellan, Falling In Love, Fluff, Gabe Ugliano Being an Asshole, Graduation, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Light Angst, M/M, Off-screen, One Shot, POV First Person, past child prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robindrake93/pseuds/robindrake93
Summary: Former runaway and juvenile delinquent Luke Castellan moves into a new apartment complex and falls hard for the neighbor boy.
Relationships: Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson
Comments: 23
Kudos: 216





	You’re Always Welcome To Come In

**Author's Note:**

> Do not reupload/repost my fics to any website. 
> 
> Inspired by the song [Must Have Been The Wind by Alec Benjamin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9EBm4-9isI). If the tags scare you, don't let them. There's no violence on screen and though the prostitution happened underage, it's only mentioned in conversation. 
> 
> The formatting is a little bit different on this one, which is mostly due to the fact that I've made a fic full of lines rather than paragraphs.If you don't like the font color, click "Hide Creator's Style" at the top and it'll revert to black.

The pen hadn’t been worth stealing. It was a simple ballpoint that wrote with red ink, nothing special. Nothing that I couldn’t have picked up fifty of for a dollar at the local supermarket. Now my petty theft was coming back to bite me in the ass, as I tried to juggle it, my new apartment keys, and the two boxes that contained all of my worldly possessions.  
I just managed to fish my keys out of my pocket and was sorting through them, looking for the one that would fit the lock, when a door down the hall burst open with a _bang!_  
A teenage boy burst out of the open door, crashed into the opposite wall, and used his momentum to propel himself down the hall towards me. He pelted full speed into me, knocking everything in my hands to the floor.  
As fast as he was going, I was faster and I grabbed his arm before he could get away.  
His momentum dragged me about a foot away from my door before he stopped. The look that the teen gave me was full of terror.  
I immediately released him, heart pounding.  
As soon as he was free, the teen flew to the stairs and disappeared out of view.  
A male voice yelled from the apartment the boy had fled. It was deep and nasty and full of hatred. The door slammed shut.  
I picked up my keys and unlocked the door, then used my foot to nudge the boxes inside. I picked up the red pen, gave it an annoyed look like the pen had caused this trouble, and shoved it into my pocket. So much for living in a quiet little apartment. 

It turned out that my floor wasn’t as quiet as I had hoped, even at night. Maybe, especially at night. The walls were thin and I could hear that same ugly voice even though they lived two doors down and across the hall.  
The man with the ugly voice invited over friends who also had ugly voices though none of them were quite so loud as he was. From what I gathered by snippets of conversation, they played poker every night.  
There was a woman living there, which I knew because I could hear the man shouting for someone called Sally. I never heard her voice but sometimes I heard the echo of a smack if she didn’t do what he wanted fast enough.  
Then there was the teenage boy who’d run into me. I heard his voice less than I heard the man’s voice but sometimes he shouted back. Mostly, though, the teenager and the man saved their fighting for the afternoon, when Sally wasn’t home.  
Sometimes I heard the unmistakable sound of a body hitting a wall or the ground. Sometimes there was glass breaking, or drywall crumbling, or a sharp cry of pain.  
My mattress was on the floor and I would lie there, eyes fixed on the ceiling, wondering how - if - I could make things better or if interfering would only make it worse. 

The next time I saw the teenager was at the mailbox. He stood in front of the mailbox with his head bowed. His hand shook as he tried to push the key into the lock.  
“You trying to steal my mail?” I asked him.  
The teen blinked. He looked at me, pupils narrowing as he tried to remember my face, and then at the mailbox. He squinted at the letters and then shifted over a little and tried a different box. “Sorry,” he mumbled. His black hair barely covered a swollen black eye.  
“I’m Luke,” I said as I effortlessly fit my key into the lock. A single red envelope lay within the mailbox. I touched only the corner of it, saw the sender's name and the two snakes stamped into the wax seal. I tossed the letter in the trash without opening it.  
The teen watched me with his good eye. “Percy,” he whispered like he didn’t want anyone to overhear him.  
“Nice to officially meet you,” I said, offering him a dry smile.  
Suddenly it clicked for him. “Oh! You!” He scraped the key against the outside of the mailbox. “Sorry, I-I was in a hurry. Nothing broke, did it?” Percy’s face was lined with anxiety.  
“Nah,” I said with a shrug. “Nothing broke.”  
“Oh. Good,” Percy muttered and went back to trying to open his mailbox.  
It was painful to watch his hands shake too much to slide the key into the lock. “You want a hand with that?”  
Percy shook his head. He struggled for a few minutes more. “Don’t you have something better to do?”  
I bit my cheek to hide a smile. “Definitely. But if I don’t get a resolution to your epic battle with the mailbox, I’ll be up thinking about it all night.”  
Percy huffed.  
I held out my hand, palm up. “C’mon, it’s not like I’m going to steal it. And even if I did, you know where I live.”  
Percy’s gaze flicked from my hand to my face. He seemed to notice the scar under my right eye for the first time. After a long moment, he dropped the key in my palm.  
I opened his mailbox for him, then pressed the key back into his hand.  
Percy pocketed the key and pulled out the mail. There was an official looking letter on top that said Percy Jackson on the recipient spot. He frowned when he saw it.  
I closed my mailbox. “See ya around, Percy,” I called over my shoulder as I went out the front door of the building.

Percy’s name sounded familiar so I googled it one night. Thousands of hits came up, with headline articles that made my eyebrows shoot up into my hair.  
The older ones said:  
LOCAL MOTHER AND SON MISSING  
STEPFATHER SAYS SON IS DISTURBED AND TROUBLED  
SON BELIEVED TO HAVE KIDNAPPED HIS MOTHER  
MISSING BOY ALLEGEDLY BLOWS UP BUS  
SALLY JACKSON REAPPEARS, SONS WHEREABOUTS STILL UNKNOWN  
PERCY JACKSON SPOTTED IN DINER WITH TERRORIST ONLY KNOWN AS ARES  
PERCY JACKSON AND ARES ARE COUSINS?!  
PERCY JACKSON BLOWS UP NATIONAL MONUMENT  
FINAL CONFRONTATION BETWEEN TERRORIST CULTIST AND POLICE  
ARES ARRESTED  
PERCY JACKSON CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY COUSIN  
PERCY JACKSON SENTENCED TO JUVENILE HALL FOR ONE YEAR  
ARES SENTENCED TO FIFTEEN YEARS IN PRISON  
PERCY JACKSON - WHERE IS HE NOW?  
I read every article, watched every video, even read the court transcripts. I couldn’t believe what this kid had gone through at twelve years old. And even now, five years later, some reporters were still hounding him.  
I thought about asking Percy about it. But dismissed that idea immediately. If he wanted to talk about it, he’d bring it up. I got the feeling that he didn’t want to talk about his past.  
Asking him about his past would open up the conversation to talk about my past and I didn’t want that either. 

I saw Percy as soon as I came up the stairs, my arms ladened down with groceries. He was sitting on the floor in the hallway, a few feet away from his door but not too close to any others. His head was tipped back and as I got closer, I saw that there was blood on his lips. It still glistened bright red, indicating that whoever hit him this time did it in the past five minutes.  
“Should I be worried about my groceries?” I asked as I got closer to him.  
Percy looked over at the sound of my voice. A guilty expression crossed his face. “No,” he said tiredly. The bruises around his left eye had turned yellow but now his right eye was blackened with a fresh bruise. “Your groceries are safe.”  
“Why are you sitting out here, anyway?”  
Percy cast a worried look at his apartment door. He licked his lips, only managing to smear the blood on his face. “Someone stole my apartment key while I was at swim practice,” he admitted unhappily. His tone changed completely, going dark and low when he added, “Gabe doesn’t want to let me in.”  
“Good. Then you can help me put the groceries away,” I said impulsively. I hadn’t meant to say it but I couldn’t just leave him sitting here.  
Percy gave me a once over and I could see him calculating how much of a threat level I was. I didn’t take offense to that. Gods knew that I’d done the same thing to every man I’d come across in my youth and even now, I still did. Slowly Percy got up and shuffled closer to me. He held out his arms.  
I shifted one of the bags into his arms and used my now free hand to get my keys and unlock the apartment door.  
My apartment wasn’t much to look at. It was a small one bedroom without any furniture. The only personal item was a framed photograph of me and my girls when we were younger. But the counter was covered in, well, _stuff_. It was stuff I had stolen and hadn’t yet decided on which drawer I would put it in. I went into the kitchen, which was also part of the living room, and shoved my stolen trinkets out of the way so that I could put down my groceries.  
Percy hesitated on the threshold, taking in how poor I was. Then he took a breath and carried the groceries over to the counter on the living room side. It didn’t escape my notice that there was a counter between us and the door to Percy’s back.  
“Thanks,” I said, and started putting the groceries away. I didn’t ask him to help, expecting him to bolt now that the favor was done.  
Percy lingered, looking at the trinkets on the counter. His eyes kept getting drawn to the photograph. His unasked question burned between us. What he asked instead was, “Can I use your bathroom?”  
Clearly, Percy didn’t have any self preservation instincts or he wouldn’t be asking to use a strange man’s bathroom. I nodded. “Down the hall. It’s the open door on the right.”  
Percy disappeared into my bathroom. I heard the water running.  
I finished putting away my groceries and started on sorting through my trinkets.  
When Percy returned, the blood was gone. “Thanks.” He shuffled his feet. “I’m gonna go,” Percy said.  
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the help.”  
Percy left, closing my door softly behind him. I heard his footsteps and then the soft thump of him leaning against my wall and sliding down it.  
_Hmm._  
I didn’t hear movement again until almost four pm, when the man - Gabe? - with the ugly voice shouted at Percy to get his ass inside before his mother got home.  
Anger curled hot in my gut. I went out to the fire escape and pulled a pack of cigarettes from my pocket. I smoked until I’d managed to convince myself not to go to the apartment down the hall and kidnap Percy. 

I found out about Percy’s summer job by walking by him on the way home from my job. It was early morning, predawn. He had a wagon full of newspapers.  
“You’re a paperboy?” I asked as I got closer.  
Percy didn’t jump at the sound of my voice but his shoulders tensed. “Luke?”  
“Hey,” I said, stopping far enough away that he wouldn’t feel crowded. I brought my cigarette up to my lips and affected not to be looking at him.  
“Yeah,” Percy sighed down at his papers. His expression hardened. “I’ve had this job since middle school.”  
“That’s cool.” It was better than what I did for money at that age. Safer. “Have you graduated?”  
Percy rolled his eyes. His shoulders finally dropped. “I’ll be a senior this year.”  
I did some mental math. Even though I’d dropped out of school early, I was good with numbers. He was seventeen, then, would be turning eighteen.  
He fiddled with the strings tying his newspaper. “My mom wants me to graduate,” Percy said.  
“That isn’t unusual for moms.”  
Percy nodded like I’d said something sagely. “See ya, Luke,” Percy said and waved as he walked down the street. 

It was days later and the city was sweltering from a heatwave. My air conditioning didn’t work. The knock on my door was unexpected. My visitor was even more unexpected.  
Percy stood outside my door, his hands behind his back. There was a purple bruise on his jaw. “Can I use your bathroom again?”  
I didn’t see any obvious blood on him but I knew that Gabe liked to lock Percy out of their apartment. “Sure.” I stepped aside and closed the door behind him.  
Percy sped walked to the bathroom but I still saw what he’d been trying to hide. His knuckles were bloody. I didn’t think it was his blood. He’d probably been fighting.  
I went back to what I’d been doing before Percy knocked; laying eagle spread on my living room floor. The floor was linoleum made to look like hardwood and was cooler than laying on my mattress. Plus, the living room had the biggest window so if the breeze decided to kick up, it might blow on me.  
When he came out of the bathroom, Percy wasn’t hiding his hands. He paused and looked at me. “You want to get some ice cream?”  
Ice cream sounded good. Except... “I’m broke, kid.”  
Percy rolled his eyes. “What do you do all night if you aren’t making money?”  
Should I be worried that Percy knew my schedule? Did he realize that working at night and sleeping during the day meant I didn’t have to hear the sounds that came from his apartment?  
“This and that,” I said vaguely.  
Percy narrowed his eyes. “Are you a drug dealer?”  
I laughed. “Where are my drugs?”  
“In your room?” Percy guessed.  
I laughed again. Ice cream sounded good. “You’re welcome to look but there aren’t any drugs in my apartment.”  
Percy hummed like he wasn’t sure he believed me but he let it go. “Then I’ll get ice cream by myself.”  
“You do that.”  
Then he was gone. 

The fight was still going on when I got home from work.  
A neighbor lady poked her head out her door. “They’ve been shouting all night,” she told me as though we often stood here gossiping. “I’m worried about that boy. He’s trouble but no one can blame him when this is what he’s been coming home to since his mother married that man.” She shook her head.  
I didn’t know what to say. Why didn’t she call the cops? Why didn’t _I_ call the cops or CPS or use my fists and put an end to Gabe?  
I went into my apartment without replying to her. 

The scene was familiar, except Percy wasn’t trying to open a mailbox. He stood in front of the rows of small metal boxes, head bowed and hands hanging limply at his sides.  
“And the mailbox saga continues,” I said as I walked up to check my own mailbox. Bills, a couple letters from friends.  
Percy didn’t respond.  
I glanced at him and did a double take.  
Tears ran down Percy’s cheeks. There was a cut on his forehead, dried blood crusted in his bangs. He didn’t make a single sound.  
“You look like shit,” I told him.  
This was enough to startle a laugh out of him, a choked sound of surprise. Percy blinked, his tears fell a little heavier, and then he looked at me through his lashes. “Asshole.”  
I smiled, shrugged. “C’mon kid, you can use my bathroom to clean up.”  
Percy followed me up the stairs to our floor. He stayed behind me, acted as my shadow and kept me between him and the door to his apartment.  
The second I unlocked my door, he slipped beneath my arm and inside. By the time I closed the door behind me, Percy was already in the bathroom.  
I sighed and put the mail on the counter. I’d read it after Percy left. For now, I fidgeted, waiting for Percy to come back out.  
The minutes ticked on. The water turned off. Percy didn’t come out.  
I got out my lock picking kit and set to work on some locks, just for something to do with my hands. Every couple of seconds, I glanced towards the bathroom.  
I was just about to go check on him when I heard his voice, soft and unsure. “Luke?”  
“Yeah?” I called.  
“Could...could you come here?”  
I tried the knob and found it unlocked.  
Percy sat cross-legged on the toilet lid. One hand was held out and the other was struggling with an unraveled ace bandage. “I need an extra set of hands,” he said.  
I couldn’t see anything visibly wrong with Percy’s arm but he was holding it gingerly, as though it hurt. My first aid kit was open on the counter beside him.  
Percy looked up at me. I don’t know what he saw in my expression but he jumped up immediately, letting the bandage fall onto the floor. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get into your stuff.” Then, quickly, he added, “It’s just sprained. I tried to catch myself before I fell but…” His voice trailed off as I crowded into his space. His sea glass green eyes were wide, shoulders raised high.  
I knelt, hoping I wouldn’t get kneed in the face, and picked up the ace bandages. “I don’t mind,” I said, and held out my hand for his injured wrist.  
Percy hesitated, then held out his wrist.  
I brushed my fingers against his skin, felt a little bit of swelling around his wrist. He was probably right about it being sprained. “Hold completely still,” I instructed. Then I began to wrap his wrist.  
Percy held still and quiet.  
When I was done and the bandage was secure, I looked through my medicine cabinet and found some mild painkillers. I handed him the bottle. “Don’t take more than two.” Then I went to get him a glass from the kitchen.  
Percy filled the glass with tap water, popped two of the pills, and then rejoined me out in the living room. He looked stunned. “You have a table!”  
I rolled my eyes. “That’s what happens when you have money,” I said. “You can buy furniture.”  
Without asking, Percy sat down in one of the chairs. He wiggled around then announced, “I approve.”  
I snorted. “Oh good. I buy my furniture wondering if the neighbor boy will like it.”  
Percy’s smile was dazzling. He caught sight of my lock picking kit. “What are you doing with that?”  
“Practicing,” I answered and brought it over to the table so that he could see it better. I sat down opposite him.  
Percy looked but didn’t touch. “Are you a thief?” He asked me, catching my gaze.  
I just looked steadily back at him.  
“Can you teach me?”  
So I spent the entire afternoon teaching Percy how to pick locks. 

It was the last day of August and I was out for a morning run when I ran into Percy again. Not literally.  
He stood outside our building with a woman who was unmistakably his mother. Her hair was streaked with gray but her face still looked young. She smiled at Percy and her love for her son was so obvious that it made me instantly jealous. “I’ll miss you, darling.”  
“I’ll miss you too, mom,” Percy said. He hugged her tightly, eyes squeezed shut.  
I was about to go up the stairs when Percy yelled, “Bye Luke!”  
I turned heel and waved to him. “Bye, Percy!”  
Sally turned to look at me. Her expression was confused.  
Percy ran up the steps to me. For a second, I thought he was going to hug me, but he stopped just before that. “I hope I don’t see you till May.”  
I blinked. “Where are you going?”  
Percy made a face at me. “What, are you so old that you’ve forgotten about school?”  
I laughed. “Yup. That’s it, exactly.” I ruffled his hair. It was soft and cool beneath my palm.  
“Percy! We have to go!” Sally called from the curb.  
Percy gave me one last smile then bounded back to his mother. 

It was quieter with Percy gone.  
I missed him. 

It was December when Percy came back from his boarding school. He came with his suitcase and a letter from the school saying that he was expelled. According to the yelling, this was the tenth school he’d been expelled from. The fight that night was so bad that the cops showed up.  
Gabe was arrested.  
Sally was taken to the hospital.  
Percy knocked on my door shortly after the emergency officials left. He looked awful; hunted and tired and hurt. His gaze flitted past me to the new couch in my living room and before I could say anything, Percy asked “Can I crash on your couch for a few days?”  
I stood aside and let him in.  
We ate a silent dinner of boxed mac n cheese.  
I directed him to the shower to give him some privacy and because he was a mess. He hadn’t brought any clothes with him and he didn’t want to go back to his apartment, so I lent him one of my t-shirts. He turned his back to me while he put it on but I still saw the gashes that tore across his skin. They looked like they’d been made with a belt. Every time he moved, he winced with pain.  
I didn’t have a spare blanket so I gave him the comforter off my bed - it was reasonably clean - and got him some painkillers. Percy spoke as little as possible. He didn’t seem inclined to answer any questions for me, so I didn’t ask any about what had happened or how he was doing. Those were clear enough.  
We went to bed early.  
From my room, I could hear Percy sobbing on the couch. Hearing his sounds of distress coming from my own apartment was very different from hearing it down the hall. I got out of bed and quietly made my way to the living room.  
I didn’t have a plan as I sat down on the couch by his feet.  
Percy didn’t notice me until I was right next to him. In the light from the window, I watched him try to put himself back together.  
“C’mere, sweetness,” I said softly.  
Percy wiped his face on my t-shirt. He drew his legs to his chest.  
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I won’t hurt you.”  
Percy hiccuped and another sob wracked his body. He crawled over to me and tucked himself into my side, damp face pressed against my shoulder.  
I wrapped my arms around him and stroked his hair. He was hot against me, temperature running high like his emotions. Who could ever hurt this sweet kid?

It turned out that there was one sour thing between us. Even though I never smoked in the apartment, I did smoke on the fire escape.  
It took me three cigarettes to realize that Percy was shying away from me whenever I smoked. I’d have a smoke, come in and sit on the couch, and the teen would get up and plant himself at the table.  
“What?” I snapped after the third time that happened.  
Percy sat on the chair, knees drawn up, watching me with wide eyes. “It makes me nauseous,” he said.  
_What,_ I gestured.  
Percy pantomimed smoking.  
I sighed and got up to take a shower.  
Percy curled tighter into himself when I passed.  
I thought about quitting. Percy wasn’t the only one in my life who didn’t want me to smoke.

A few days turned into a week once Gabe got out of jail and Sally returned from the hospital. Percy didn’t ask if he could stay and I didn’t tell him to go home.  
We hardly saw each other anyway, except for a few hours before my night shift started and sometimes in the morning if I was fast getting home before he went to work.  
Sally came to check on him every day when she got off work. She couldn’t stay for more than a few minutes before the obligation of taking care of her husband before he got angry made her leave. Sally brought some clean clothes for Percy, smuggled a couple of articles at a time in her purse.  
Percy didn’t have to keep wearing my shirts but he did, wiggling into one once Sally had made her visit for the night.  
I didn’t have a television or computer in my apartment so Percy occupied himself with my trinkets. I started bringing home more things, specifically for him to play with. 

Another week later, during one of Sally’s visits, I saw Percy slip some cash into her purse when she wasn’t looking.  
I knew that Sally worked full time and that Percy did whatever legal work he could find, which should have been enough for them. If it wasn’t for Gabe spending their money gambling and buying expensive cigars (that made Percy nauseous) and enough beer to drown a horse. 

One morning, I came home about four hours early so that I could wake up earlier in the day.  
Percy looked up from his breakfast of pop tarts, surprised that I was home this early. “Are you okay?” He asked.  
I nodded and slipped out of my shoes. I hated wearing close-toed sneakers but it was mandatory.  
“Did you get fired?” It turned out that when he wasn’t afraid of getting hit - more or less, not afraid - Percy was pretty blunt.  
“Nah. I’ve got a visitor coming over later,” I said. As I walked into the kitchen, I ruffled his hair.  
“Hey,” he complained and swatted my hand away. Percy carefully straightened his hair. He may come back exhausted from a long day but he liked to look good when he went in to work. He studied me while I made my own breakfast. “Should I make myself scarce?”  
I snorted. “This isn’t that kind of visitor.”  
Percy’s face turned red.  
“You can stay or go. It’s just a friend coming to check up on me,” I said. When my pop tarts were cooked and my juice was poured, I sat down opposite him. “He won’t mind that you’re here.”  
Percy nodded and didn’t commit either way.  
We made small talk over breakfast, then he went to work and I went to bed.  
Six hours later, my alarm went off. I groaned, hit snooze, and went back to sleep. I must have only _thought_ I hit snooze because my alarm didn’t go off again five minutes later like it was supposed to.  
Instead, I was woken up by Percy tentatively shaking my arm. “Wha?” I slurred, still tired.  
“Um,” Percy looked nervously towards my bedroom door. “Chiron is here for you.”  
I shot out of bed and hurried to get dressed.  
Percy watched me with wide eyes. “How do you know Chiron?”  
I paused in the middle of pulling a shirt over my head. “How do you know Chiron?”  
Percy’s face turned red. He didn't meet my eye.  
I got dressed and went out into the living room.  
Chiron sat in his wheelchair looking as youthful and scholarly as he had when I met him ten years ago. “Luke,” Chiron said with a warm smile. “It’s good to see you again.”  
He always said that even though he came by once a month to make sure I was still on the up and up.  
“Hey, Chiron,” I said and went over to shake his hand.  
Percy slipped out of my room and curled up on the couch, watching us. He looked confused.  
“I see you have a couch now,” Chiron noticed with a smile.  
I looked at it - and Percy - as though I’d never seen them before in my life. “It turns out that having a couch is useful.”  
“I can see that. I’m glad that you and Percy found each other.” Chiron’s eyes glittered with a gleam that meant one of his plans had worked out.  
I narrowed my eyes. “Did you send me to these apartments because you knew _he_ was living here?”  
“Wait, what?” Percy asked from the couch.  
“I’ll admit there was a bit of matchmaking on my part,” Chiron said. “I didn’t expect you to wind up on the same floor but it’s worked out quite nicely from the look of things.”  
“Oh my gods,” I muttered under my breath. I wanted a cigarette to soothe my agitation but I’d been trying to quit while Percy stayed with me. Instead, I ran my hands through my hair a few times.  
“How do you two know each other?” Percy asked again.  
I didn’t answer. I’d put our pasts out of my mind since Percy didn’t seem to want to talk about it.  
Thankfully, Chiron answered for me. “Percy, Luke also attended Camp Half-Blood. Though he finished the program two years before you entered it.”  
My leg bounced nervously. I hadn’t told Percy about my time in Camp Half-Blood Juvenile Detention Center and I hadn’t asked about Percy’s time in juvie.  
Percy looked at me with annoyance written across his face. “Did you know?”  
“That we went to the same juvie?” I asked. “No.” I stuck my hand in the couch cushions and pulled out a red ballpoint pen. There was always something stuck in the couch because Percy fell asleep playing with things all the time. I fiddled with the pen, twisting the cap. “I looked you up but they didn’t list the place they sent you.”  
Percy had a look of resigned annoyance on his face, like he wasn’t surprised I’d looked him up. He probably wasn’t. I’m sure new people in his life did it all the time. “What were you in for?”  
I looked at Chiron. My leg bounced harder.  
“Percy, not everyone wants to talk about their past,” Chiron said gently.  
Percy bit his lip. Then he nodded.  
Chiron continued, “How are you doing, Percy? What’s been going on in your life?”  
“Um,” Percy swallowed. “I, um, got kicked out of my new school.” He looked at the floor while he said it. “For fighting,” he added softly. Percy’s tone turned defensive, “They took Grover’s crutches.”  
Chiron looked evenly at Percy. “Taking care of your friends is an admirable quality, Percy. However, you must leave it to the people whose job it is to take care of these things.”  
I watched Percy from the corner of my eye.  
He looked frustrated even as he nodded. “Gabe wasn’t happy.” His tone was flat. “So I asked Luke if I could stay here for a while. Moms okay with it.”  
That was putting things very lightly, very vaguely.  
Chiron pursed his lips but let it go. He’s dealt with a lot of stubborn kids in his day. He turned to me. “How is your new job going, Luke?”  
“Fine,” I said. “I have a couch.”  
Chiron briefly looked amused. “It’s a step in the right direction.” He said that every time I did something he approved of. I’d taken a lot of steps in the right direction but I wanted to actually get to this magical place of having my shit together. “How did your birthday go this year?”  
I shrugged. “I went to see Thalia.”  
Chiron nodded, having expected this. I’d been going to see her on our birthdays every year.  
“Annabeth sent me a card,” I said.  
“I suspected that she did,” Chiron said wryly. He’s never been like anyone else, when it came to me and Annabeth. He never believed that I’d kidnapped her, trusted us when we said that I’d found her by chance after she’d run away and that no one, _no one_ , ever put their hands on her.  
I didn’t want to talk about it with Percy sitting right there.  
The rest of Chiron’s visit consisted of the two of us only telling Chiron enough to prevent him from worrying too much. When Chiron finally left two hours later, with a promise that he would be back next month, I retreated back to my room.  
I really, really wanted a smoke but instead of giving in to that temptation, I passed out for another eight hours. 

To his credit, Percy didn’t ask about my past for two whole days. I’m pretty sure he’d been looking me up while he was out because he came home from work late both days. He was fidgety at dinner, watching me constantly and trying to get me in a good mood.  
I climbed out onto the fire escape and perched on the windowsill. “If you ask, I’m smoking one. That’s the price of answers. So take it or leave it.”  
Percy sat on the end of the couch closest to the window, a can of coke in his hand. He ran his finger over the rim before looking at me. “Deal.”  
I shook out a cigarette from the pack I kept in the flower pot and put it between my teeth. “Then ask your questions.”  
“How old are you?”  
I laughed and almost dropped my cigarette. That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. “I turned twenty-four last week.”  
“How long were you at Camp Half-Blood?”  
“The regular three year stint. I got out early for good behavior.” And almost went right back in for making ‘bad choices.’ I stared up at my smoke trailing into the sky.  
“When...when were you…?” Percy struggled with what he wanted to ask.  
I didn’t help him out. If he wanted to know, he’d have to figure out how to ask.  
“How old were you when you went in?”  
“Fourteen,” I said and tried to keep the steel out of my voice.  
Judging by Percy’s expression, I wasn’t doing a good job. He took a nervous drink of his coke while he did the math. “Why were you arrested?”  
Ah. There it was. I took a long drag of my cigarette to settle my nerves. I didn’t like thinking about that time of my life, let alone talking about it. “Prostitution,” I said after a long pause.  
Percy’s eyes widened in surprise. He caught me watching him and blushed, looking down again. “Oh,” he said quietly. "Are you...clean?"  
I nodded. That was the first thing people always asked when they found out.  
We sat in tense, awkward silence.  
I wondered if he’d find a reason to move out of my apartment.  
Percy lifted his face. His expression was carefully neutral. “Is that what you do when you go out at night?”  
I shook my head. “I work at a grocery store, stocking the shelves.” I’d made more money at fourteen than I do at twenty-four. At fourteen, I wasn’t just a prostitute; I’d been filmed too. My videos were still floating around those circles, and sometimes the cops called me in to identify someone in other videos because my name had been dropped by an informant.  
“Did you really kidnap that girl?”  
I rolled my eyes. “Do you think I kidnapped her?”  
Percy studied me. “No.”  
“Well that makes two of you,” I muttered. “Thalia and I found Annabeth.”  
“Were they sex workers too?”  
“I didn’t want Thalia to do it but she went behind my back. After I found out, we started going out together. It’s safer.” I was going to need another cigarette if we were going to talk about this. Mine seemed to be disappearing too quickly.  
“And Annabeth?”  
“We didn’t let her,” I said sharply. “She was only seven when we found her.” I rubbed my hands over my face.  
Percy rubbed his socked feet together. He looked everywhere but at me while he processed that. “Where are they now?”  
“Annabeth is living with her mom again. You should know her, she was on the board of directors for Camp Half-Blood.” I waited until Percy nodded to continue, “Thalia was murdered. Annabeth and I were sick, so Thalia went out to get money for medicine and she never came back. I found her body in the alley we usually worked at and called the cops.”  
Percy was silent, staring at me in rapt attention.  
“They never found the John that killed Thalia.” But I did, once I’d gotten out of juvie. “For some reason, no one believed that a seven year old would run away from home on her own and thought we’d been holding Annabeth hostage but they dropped that charge eventually. All they could pin on me was the prostitution. They sent me to Camp Half-Blood to be ‘rehabilitated’.”  
“How did you…” Percy paused, thought about it. “Were you homeless?”  
I nodded. “Ran away from home at nine.” I flicked the ashes into a nearby terracotta pot.  
“Why?”  
“When I was a baby, my mom went crazy. No ones really sure why…but after that, my dad bailed on us. He left me with her.” I could almost smell the burnt cookies now. A chill went down my spine. “She was scary. I used to hide in the closet to get away from her.”  
Percy flicked the tab on his coke. “Did you finish school?”  
“No.” My cigarette was gone, smoked to ashes. I got up and ignored the way Percy flinched away from me. “I gotta get to work.”

A few days later, Sally came over with some news. “I found a school willing to take you for the rest of the year,” she said after she’d hugged Percy. She told him all about it.  
Percy said all the right things.  
As soon as Sally was gone, he went into my room. When he came back out, he was sans pants and plus one of my shirts. Percy made a beeline for the fire escape and sat on the windowsill. He drew his legs up and bowed his head.  
I gave him a half hour alone before deciding to do something about the desolation he radiated. I sat beside him. “Kinda cold out here for that getup, isn’t it?”  
Percy didn’t respond.  
I waited.  
Finally he mumbled, “I don’t want to go to school.”  
“This is what not going to school gets you,” I said and gestured to my shitty apartment. “Go to school, get a good job, and get out of this hellhole, Percy.”  
Percy twisted his neck to look around the space that had become his haven in the past couple of weeks. He looked at me and I saw anger flash in his eyes. “What happens when I fail or get in a fight and get expelled again? What happens when it’s me Gabe puts in the hospital?” He swallowed. “I’m sick of living like this! I’m sick of being a disappointment but no matter how hard I try, I’m just not good enough.”  
If Gabe ever put Percy in the hospital, I would be putting Gabe six feet down. The teen had grown on me. I enjoyed having him around and I liked knowing he was safe with me. I didn’t mention that to Percy though. “Then you try again.” I put my hands on his shoulders, a light touch that he could brush off if he wanted to. “You try again and you keep trying. Don’t give up. You got that?”  
Percy’s expression was unsure, doubtful.  
I sighed, looked up at the sky for guidance but was met only with the off-black of a New York night. “Look, listen, if you give it your best and keep trying, you can come live with me after you graduate. Permanently. We’ll get a place away from your stepdad. If you want to.” Part of me couldn’t believe I just offered that. Once Percy turned eighteen, he didn’t have to live under Gabe’s roof. He was free to get a better paying job and go where he wanted. He wouldn’t need me to keep him safe anymore.  
Percy searched my eyes. Cautiously, he put his hands on my forearms. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Yeah. Okay, Luke. I’ll hold you to that.” Percy offered me a tentative smile. 

From the moment Percy told his mom his decision, it felt like there was a countdown. 

January was so cold that it set records. The weather was all anyone wanted to talk about. My coworkers wouldn’t shut up about it. Sally mentioned it every time she came over.  
The heater broke in the middle of the night. Percy called my work to tell me. “Heaters broken,” he said without saying hello first. “I’m really cold. When are you getting home?”  
“Same time as usual,” I said. He knew that and was only asking because he was uncomfortable and me being there was familiar. It made my heart feel fluttery and golden with happiness. However, that feeling soon vanished when I realized that we wouldn’t have heat for at least a full day, possibly more. I thought about telling him to go home but it was the middle of the night and I knew that when Percy went back, there would be an epic fight waiting. “Take your blanket and go get in my bed. It’ll be a little warmer in my room than in the living room.”  
I heard movement from Percy’s side of the line and then rustling. “Okay, Luke,” he said and he sounded like a child. “Get home soon, okay?”  
“I’ll be there as quick as I can,” I promised. After the phone call, work seemed to drag on. I worried about Percy in my cold apartment. My room might be a few degrees warmer but it wouldn’t be enough to stave off the winter chill.  
Work had small space heaters for sale and I picked one up for fifteen dollars. Something would probably be better than nothing. It was freezing cold on the walk home - literally - and all I thought of was Percy alone in the apartment, of Percy shivering with cold. There was snow on the ground but none falling from the sky; it was too cold for it to snow. I almost slipped onto my ass a couple of times, nearly ate the sidewalk a few other times. By the time I made it to our building, I was practically running and I _did_ run to the elevator.  
I didn’t run down our hall, but only because I didn’t want to accidentally wake Gabe. So far I’d managed to avoid him entirely and I wanted to keep it that way; especially since I was harboring his stepson. My hands trembled as I put the key in the lock to open my front door. Once I got inside, I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my outermost layer of clothes. The apartment was significantly colder than the hallway had been.  
I hurried to the bedroom and paused when I saw the lump beneath the covers. Percy had the blankets tucked tightly around him. He was so thoroughly buried that I couldn’t even see his black hair sticking out. I plugged in the space heater and turned it on the lowest setting so that it didn’t blow a fuse. Then I walked over to my bed and pulled at the covers. “Hey,” I whispered. “Let me in.”  
Percy whined but acquiesced, loosening his hold on the blankets. He shivered so violently that the whole bed shook. “Hurry, Luke! It’s cold!”  
I wormed my way into Percy’s den, doing my best to keep the covers tucked up close to us. That meant I had to curl up tight, practically on top of the teen. I pulled the covers back over our heads and made a small breathing hole. It was warmer beneath the covers, and so dark that I couldn’t see Percy even though he was right in front of me. The air was humid with our breaths.  
Percy shivered and snuggled closer to me. “I hate being cold,” he complained and his breath was an exhale in my face. We were so close that I could taste the vanilla mint of his toothpaste.  
“I bought a space heater,” I whispered back. Man, I hoped my breath didn’t smell bad. Being stuck in a small space with someone who had bad breath would be the worst.  
Percy listened. The space heater gave off a whirring noise like a fan. “I wish it would hurry up.”  
“Me too,” I said. I kept my hands tucked close to my body but there wasn’t much I could about the way my knees pressed into his.  
Several minutes of silence passed with only the sound of our breathing. “Luke?” Percy asked me, sounding cautious. Like he was scared of how I’d react.  
I acknowledged him with a hum.  
“Would...would you hold me? Just until the room gets warmer?” Percy hadn’t stopped shivering since I got here and had probably been doing it for hours now. His muscles probably ached from all the tension.  
I didn’t want to cross a line with Percy. I was an adult, he wasn’t, and I wasn’t the type to prey on kids. Everything I said and did was done with the fact that Percy was a minor in mind. But it wasn’t an unreasonable request and I’d already held him a couple of times before. “Okay,” I agreed and reached for him.  
Percy wiggled into my arms like an enthusiastic puppy. He squirmed for a moment, trying to get comfortable, and then settled down with a relieved sigh. He didn’t stop shivering for another fifteen minutes.  
Percy spent another two nights in my bed while we waited for the landlord to call for someone to fix the heater. After the heater was working, Percy moved back to the couch.  
And I didn’t tell him how much I missed him beside me. 

Sally came over the day that Percy left for his new boarding school to make sure he was packed properly and to thank me for taking care of him. Her makeup was coated thick on her face near her jaw. “Luke, sweetheart, thank you so much. Knowing that he’s safe has been such a weight off my shoulders.” Sally kissed both my cheeks.  
I hugged Percy goodbye. “I’m on your side no matter what happens, okay?”  
Percy hugged me a little tighter. “Thanks, Luke.” He hesitated, pulled away. “I miss you already.”  
I smiled at the warm, soft feeling Percy’s words made bloom in my chest. “Yeah. I miss you too, kid.”  
I walked them out of the building and waved goodbye as they drove off. 

At work that night, someone mentioned that there was a bad car accident just off the freeway. Now that Percy was gone, I had my cell phone back but it was just a flip phone. It didn’t have the internet.  
I had to wait till I got off work to go to the library and then wait three hours until they opened before I could use their computers. The headline didn’t make my heart stop. Reading Sally Jackson’s name in the article did.  
The article said that the minor was staying overnight but would be released from the hospital this morning. His injuries weren’t serious.  
Sally was in the ICU in critical condition.  
My cell phone rang almost on cue. The number was unknown. I knew it was Percy before I even heard his voice. “Are you okay, Percy?”  
“I’m alright,” Percy said and his voice wavered. Maybe he was fine physically but not emotionally. “Did you hear the news?”  
“Yeah, I just found out.” I stared at the article pulled up on the computer screen.  
“I called Chiron first. He’s gonna send a driver to take me to school.” There was an apology in his voice.  
“Good,” I said. My throat was tight. “What hospital is she at?”  
Percy told me the address. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you first. I wanted to but -”  
I cut him off, “It’s alright, Percy. You needed to get things in order first. I’m glad you’re okay. Thanks for calling me.”  
There was silence on the other end of the line. I could practically hear him trying to talk himself out of asking if he could come home. “Hey, you go to school. I’ll visit your mom every day, alright. And you can call me whenever you want.” He’d clearly memorized my number.  
“Thanks, Luke. I...can I call you when I get to school?”  
I was relieved that I didn’t have to ask him. “Yeah. I’m only a couple blocks from the hospital so I’m gonna head over and try to see your mom.” I stood up and left the library.  
Percy made a distressed noise in his throat. “The car is here. Looks like Argus is the driver,” he said. I could hear the longing in his voice. “I have to go.”  
“Don’t forget to call me when you get there, alright?” I walked faster, even though I knew I couldn’t make it. The article said that he was released but that didn’t mean he’d walked away without a scratch. I wanted to see Percy again, to make sure he was alright with my own two eyes. More than that, I didn’t want him to go to school. A very selfish part of me wanted to keep him with me. And that’s what made me stop walking.  
“I won’t forget. Bye, Luke.”  
“Bye, Percy.” I said and hung up first. Because if I didn’t then he wouldn’t either and I would have enough time to see him again. Realization twisted up in my gut and I had to analyze it before I saw Percy again.  
For now, I would keep my promise and go see his mom. I didn’t expect them to let me in and they didn’t. If I wanted to visit then I had to wait until she was out of the ICU and I had to be family. I told them I was her nephew, and left them my cell phone number. 

After I had a good, long think, I decided to call Chiron. I sat on the fire escape with an unlit cigarette between my teeth. As soon as he answered, I said, “I think I’ve got romantic feelings for Percy.”  
Chiron was stunned into silence for a few moments. Mentally, I could picture him pulling himself together. I could imagine the wheels in his head turning. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”  
So I did. I told him everything that had happened from our first meeting to the last time I spoke with Percy. When I was finally finished, the sun had moved in the sky.  
“Luke, I’m not sure what you want me to say,” Chiron said unhelpfully.  
“He’s a minor,” I said. That was my problem. Percy was seventeen and he wouldn’t turn eighteen until August, three months after he got back from school.  
“Luke, from everything you’ve told me, it doesn’t sound like you’re taking advantage of Percy. Your feelings for him have nothing to do with what older men put you through when you were a teenager.” Chiron paused. “If you like, I could speak with him to see that his side of things is the same as yours. Of course, I won’t tell you what he tells me, but perhaps I could put you at ease.”  
“Thanks, Chiron.” 

A few days later, I saw the headline that said Sally Jackson was in a coma. There was an interview on TV with Gabe Ugliano, her husband and Percy’s stepdad. Every word that came out of his mouth made me so angry and disgusted that I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. Gabe insinuated that the accident was Percy’s fault even though they’d been hit by an asshole running a red light. 

Chiron called me back and reassured me that Percy didn’t feel I was taking advantage of him in any way. That made me feel better about the whole thing and I thought about how I wanted to handle things moving forward.  
I would wait until he was legally an adult before I made any moves. But not the second he turned eighteen, because I didn’t want Percy to think that sex was what it was about. Having a plan, even in the loosest sense, made me feel better.  
In the meantime, I went to a clinic to get tested again. I knew I was clean, but I wanted to double check. Again. They called me back a couple days later telling me that I was squeaky clean. Just like I'd thought. 

While Percy was at school, he called me every day. Sometimes while he was supposed to be studying and just wanted the distraction. Sometimes while he was in bed, about to fall asleep. He asked me about his mom. He asked me about work. He told me about the other kids and the teachers and the food. Our conversations were sometimes only ten minutes and sometimes two hours.  
We talked so much that I switched service plans because I was running out of minutes. Percy told me that he was borrowing cell phones from the other kids. I couldn't tell if he was actually borrowing them or if he was stealing them.  
My nights off were our favorite days because I didn’t have to cut the conversation short for work. I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling and missing him beside me.  
On the other end of the line, Percy yawned. “Have you been looking for apartments, Luke?” This was said in a tired, vulnerable voice. I found it adorable.  
“Yeah,” I said. “I found a couple that I think you’ll like. Want me to mail you the listings?”  
Percy laughed, tired and sweet. “I’ve only got like two months of school left. I'll just look at them when I get home.”  
The way he said home made me feel warm and giddy. He said it the same way he said my name.  
Percy sighed and made a tiny moaning noise. “Hey, Luke, what are you getting me for my birthday?” Percy asked.  
“It’s a surprise,” I told him because I hadn’t yet decided what to get him.  
Percy hummed. “Are you alone?”  
I glanced around my empty room. “Very much so.”  
“Then I’ll tell you the second thing I want.”  
“The second thing?” I asked. My heart raced. It was suddenly hot in my room. “And what’s that?”  
“I want Gabe gone.” Another yawn.  
“What’s the first thing?” I whispered.  
“Hmm?”  
“What’s the first thing you want, Percy?”  
“Oh.” There was a brief pause. “To spend the rest of my life with you.” Percy said it so simply, like he was stating a fact. Like it didn’t alter my life to hear him say that.  
My mouth went dry. I carefully adjusted the phone so it was still against my ear, and buried my face in my pillow. I took a few muffled breaths before calming down enough to speak normally. “Is there a third item on the list?”  
“Yeah but...I don’t know if you can do it.” His tone sounded like he was frowning. “I want my mom to wake up again.”

I bought a potted plant for Sally’s room. I sat with her and told her some of the things Percy told me on the phone.  
The doctors told me that she could probably still hear. And no one had visited her. Their expressions when they said this, clued me in to the fact that they had been keeping up with the news.  
Smelly Gabe, as Percy unaffectionately called him, had just made the news again because he’d taken out a life insurance policy on Sally. He was talking about pulling the plug.  
I hoped Percy didn’t know but I was sure that he did. So here I was, sitting with Sally in a dimly lit room. My plant sat on a counter out of the way. I held Sally’s hand. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” I confessed. “Just tap once for yes and twice for no, if you can.”  
Sally’s finger twitched.  
I told her about my plans for after Percy’s graduation and later after his birthday. “Can I have your blessing?”  
A tap.  
My heart jumped with it. “Thank you.” I swallowed. “There’s one more thing…” I told her my other plans, voice low so that it was just between us.  
Another tap.  
I waited.  
That’s all there was.  
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll take care of it.”

The thing about having been a child prostitute was that it always hovered in the back of my mind as a backup option. If I couldn’t find a real job, at least I could do that again. I was still young enough for it to be lucrative.  
When I chose this apartment complex, it had something to do with Chiron’s recommendation but it was also because there weren’t security cameras. Working boys didn’t like security cameras, since prostitution was technically illegal.

In a completely unrelated note, Gabe Ugliano went missing. He completely disappeared off the face of the planet. No one noticed for a month. Not even his poker buddies, who apparently hadn’t cared much when he didn’t call to invite them over for a game. Go figure.  
Percy was the one who gave me the news. “It’s hard not being too cheery about it,” he admitted. There was still the matter of his being a criminal according to society.  
“I can’t say I blame you. It smells better with him gone,” I said as I stirred a pot of Mac n cheese. It was Percy’s favorite and I missed him so it was currently my favorite too. I reached for a favorite steak knife before realizing it wasn’t there. Well, I _had_ picked up the set at Goodwill. It was no wonder one was lost to the abyss. I chose a second favorite knife and cut the steak off the bone.  
Percy laughed. “They say I’m going to graduate. Will you be there?”  
“Of course I’ll be there. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” The steak sizzled in the frying pan. I wish I had a grill. The phone almost slipped from between my head and shoulder. “I’m glad you liked your graduation present,” I said casually.  
There was a pause, a heartbeat before Percy answered. “It was the second best gift anyone’s ever given me.” He laughed again, sweet and delighted and a little malicious. “I love you, Luke. You’re the best.”  
I couldn’t help but stand a little straighter and preen. What could I say? I was a sucker for praise. Especially coming from Percy. “Well dinners ready so I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”  
“Okay, Luke.”  
“I love you too, Percy.” Then nerves got the best of me and I hung up.

The day of Percy’s high school graduation ceremony, I stopped by the hospital. The cab fare was atrocious for two stops but it would be worth it.  
The auditorium was dark except for the stage. Sitting through a high school graduation was incredibly boring. I didn’t know or care about most of the kids. There was just one kid I was here for and when they called Percy’s name, I howled and clapped like mad for him.  
Other people in the audience looked at me weird but I couldn’t care less. That was my boy! He’d graduated against all odds. He deserved the recognition. I was so proud of him.  
After that, it was another hour of sitting through the rest of the ceremony. I was dying to get out of there and wrap Percy up in my arms again.  
Percy saw me first. He ran up to me and threw himself into my arms, wrapping his legs tight around my waist and his arms around my neck. “Luke!”  
I staggered back but didn’t fall. And then I hugged him tight. Percy smelled so good. I’d missed him so much. “I have a surprise for you.”  
“You mean besides being here?” Percy asked. His diploma was wrinkled in his hand and his cap had fallen off his head.  
“Yeah, besides that.” I squeezed him one more time and then set him down. “I didn’t come alone.” I pointed Percy in the direction of some chairs.  
Sitting in one was Sally Jackson, looking pale but happy. She beamed at Percy.  
The look on Percy’s face when he saw his mom made me fall in love with him all over again. He ran for her, skidding to a stop before he crashed into her. Percy eased his arms around Sally’s neck and just held her.  
Sally’s arms came around Percy and she rocked him. They hugged for a long time. Then Sally peeked over Percy’s shoulder and made a _come here, Luke motion._  
I joined them and they both hugged me. For the first time since I was a little kid with Annabeth and Thalia, I felt like I’d found a family. I felt like I belonged somewhere. 

Percy picked out our new apartment complex. It was nicer than the one we were in but was still in our price range. “Besides, I can get a real job now!” He was outrageously proud of the fact.  
Our apartment was a two bedroom. I had insisted that Percy have his own space. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head like I was being stupid. There was another countdown now and we didn’t talk about this one either, but Percy’s eighteenth birthday loomed closer and closer.  
I was pretty sure that I’d never smiled so much in my life. Three months passed and I kept expecting to be less content, to be less happy. But I wasn’t.  
Percy was dropping hints about what he wanted from me for his birthday. Sometimes he reminded me, “One more thing on my list, Luke.” Sometimes it was slipping his clothes into my closet. Like I said; hints.  
As if I’d forgotten.  
Sally came over for Percy’s birthday. She lived on the floor above us in the same complex, but in a single bedroom apartment. Having her close by made everyone happier. She got Percy his own cell phone for his birthday. It was a fancy smartphone. Sally also brought the cake, which was blue and delicious.  
Percy seemed happy to have us there and no one else. Though he did get a call from Chiron, wishing him a happy birthday. They were on the phone for a long time and Percy stood out on the balcony for most of the conversation.  
Sally and I sat across from each other at the table, eating cake. She glanced at Percy, still outside, then reached across the table. “Thank you, Luke. You’ve helped us so much. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”  
I smiled, feeling a little self conscious. “You and Percy are worth it.”  
Sally’s smile was knowing. “Now that I can actually speak, you have my blessing, Luke. Be good to each other.”  
“Thank you,” I said. My throat was tight again. I looked at Percy, outlined by the setting sun on the balcony.  
Percy ended his call and came back inside. “Chiron says hi,” he said. He sat down between Sally and I. “Luke, do you have to work tonight?”  
“Nope,” I said. I’d taken it off for him. Which Percy damn well knew. It occurred to me that Percy was hoping for his mom to leave without having to kick her out.  
Sally seemed to notice at the same time. “I should get going.”  
Percy's protest was half-hearted and invalidated by the way he jumped up to get her purse for her.  
Sally smiled at me, a smile that said _I hope you know what you’re in for_. Then she hugged us both goodnight and left for her apartment.  
Once the door was closed, Percy rounded on me. “Luke Castellan,” he said.  
I grinned. “Yes?”  
“When am I going to get my birthday present?”  
I stood up from the table.  
Percy was practically vibrating with excitement. He bounced over to me, meeting me halfway.  
I slid my arms around his waist.  
Percy put his arms around my neck. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.  
“Percy Jackson,” I said.  
I felt him shaking. “Yes?”  
I was more excited than nervous. There was no doubt that Percy would say yes. There was no doubt about his feelings. But I wanted to do things right for him. “Will you do me the honor of being my boyfriend?”  
“Yes!” Percy said almost before I could get the question out. “It’s always been you, Luke. Now will you _please_ kiss me and take me to our bed?”  
So I did. I kissed Percy and carried him to bed.  
Gods, I loved this boy.

**Author's Note:**

> If it isn't clear, Luke killed Gabe for Sally and Percy. He's very much a ride and die kind of boy.


End file.
